


A Mer With A Leg Vendetta

by keithsfangs



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, But not intentionally, First Meetings, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mer AU, Mer keith, Pre-Relationship, asshole keith, at first, klance, mermaid au, mermaid keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:55:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29890440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keithsfangs/pseuds/keithsfangs
Summary: After way too long of being stood in one place, Lance reached down, the mer’s piercing gaze locked onto the motion of his hand. “Hey, buddy…” Lance began nervously, “you gonna let me past? I’m just gonna, walk around you here, good job at protecting the beach, or, whatever it was you were doing here!” Lance gave the mer a nervous pat on the head, and that is when Lance knew: He’d fucked up.Or, Lance meets an asshole mermaid, hilarity ensues.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 66





	A Mer With A Leg Vendetta

**Author's Note:**

> Lance uses they/them for Keith for most of this, purely because he doesn't know Keith's gender, but if you wanna interpret this as non-binary Keith, ily
> 
> Mild violence from Keith (he's not trying to hurt anyone, I promise)  
> Also Language warning- I swear.

Lance could try and count all of the moments that lead to this one. He could count backwards and retrace his steps wondering how he got here and how things escalated, or he could start at the very beginning and still struggle to piece together the puzzle.

He was standing on the shore, staring down at a scowling mer lurking in the shallows. Lance didn’t move. The mer didn’t move. They were deadlocked, staring at each other. The mer was kind of an asshole, Lance decided. He’d only come out here to swim for a while, but no, as soon as he got too close to the water, this asshole mer popped up right in his path and started glaring at him as soon as he smiled at them. The mer had deep purple ear fins, and an emo mullet that lead to Lance affectionately naming them Gerard Gay in his head. Lance rocked on his feet slightly. The mer’s scowl deepened, following the movement. Was this a mer or a cat? A mer-cat? Was he gonna get his ankles bitten?

After way too long of being stood in one place, Lance reached down, the mer’s piercing gaze locked onto the motion of his hand. “Hey, buddy…” Lance began nervously, “you gonna let me past? I’m just gonna, walk around you here, good job at protecting the beach, or, whatever it was you were doing here!” Lance gave the mer a nervous pat on the head, and that is when Lance knew: He’d fucked up.

In a flash, the mer let out an ungodly hiss, leaping from the water with unholy strength, and Lance found himself confronted with 200lbs of fish flying out of the water with fangs as long as Lance’s pinkies and claws that looked prepared to rip his flesh to shreds. Lance shrieked, ducking and covering his face with his arms as the mer’s body slammed into his. Lance managed to avoid falling over, the mer letting out a loud hiss and tugging at his hair, lightly biting at his scalp. To be honest, Lance was surprised he wasn’t dead; the mer could easily kill him if they wanted to, but apparently, this mer was a…

 _Catfish_.

Lance cringed at his terrible joke, made at the worst possible time. The mer swept their muscular tail right into Lance’s poor knees, and Lance found himself collapsing backwards and being crushed by the heaviest fish he’d ever seen. The mer propped themselves up on their arms, hissing loudly into Lance’s face, before…

Retreating back into the water like nothing happened, slinking away into the depths. Lance didn’t fancy the odds that his legs would be ripped to shreds if he went swimming, so Lance, still in shock, walked away from the beach.

Lance returned several times over the coming weeks, and the mer would still be there, glaring him down. “What _is_ your problem, buddy? Like, _why_? Why are you such a little asshole? What did I do?!”

The mer pointed at Lance’s legs, at which Lance scoffed in disbelief. “They’re just my legs!” The mer frowned, pointing again at his legs before lifting their tail out of the water, glaring at Lance’s legs like he was personally offended by them. “You’re offended by my legs?!” The mer nodded firmly, and Lance stared in disbelief. “I can’t change my legs, buddy,” Lance protested, “I don’t get what your problem is, seriously!” The mer growled low, hissing like a cat, so Lance sighed and turned away. The mer attempted to nip at his ankles like a cat, and Lance glared daggers right back. The mer just stared at him, and Lance glared right back, staying still. “Don’t you even…” The mer nipped at his ankles again, and Lance yelped, jerking his ankle away. “No. No biting. Bad mer!” The mer hissed, and shamelessly brought a webbed hand out of the water to aggressively tap Lance’s legs like a very angry asshole cat.

So the next time Lance came to the beach, he came armed with a fly swatter. Every time the mer tried to attack Lance’s legs, he lightly swatted the mer, who hissed. At this point, onlookers had been gathering at the docks almost daily to watch and laugh as Lance was defeated by a mer-cat. 

After two months of this madness, Lance decided to grudgingly buy himself a fake mer tail online, walked to the beach with determination, and stared the mer down. He put the tail on, ignoring the laughs from onlookers, and awkwardly shuffled down to the beach. It was stupidly difficult to move without his legs, but Lance was stubborn. He was not going to let this mer swipe at his legs again, even if it meant he almost drowned himself trying to swim without his legs. The mer was stubborn, but Lance was stubborner. And he would _not_ be bested by an asshole mer.

This time, the mer stared, tilting their head at Lance. “Now will you stop attacking me?!” The mer reached out, swatting gently at the tail fin of Lance’s costume, before looking back up to Lance. “No, it’s not real, I just wanted you to stop being as assh-” Lance screeched as webbed hands dragged him into the water, clinging to the sands, but the mer held him tightly. As soon as the mer let go, Lance glared, but the mer flashed a smile, and began swimming lightly. When Lance only watched, the mer huffed, lightly tugging at his arm to get him to join, and _oh_... Lance finally realised what the mer’s problem was with his legs.

The mer didn’t think Lance’s human legs would be suitable to swim with, that perhaps Lance would drown if he tried to swim without a tail. The mer hadn’t been mad at Lance at all, they’d thought that Lance was going to drown if he went into the water, so the mer was, essentially, trying to call Lance a dumbass for repeatedly trying to swim without a tail. 

Lance laughed lightly when the mer circled back to him, and removed the mer tail. The mer panicked, hissing and screeching, but Lances held his arms out and swam lightly in a lap around the mer, laughing fondly at their confused expression. “Humans aren’t made to swim with a tail, buddy,” he clarified, “we need both legs to kick. See?” Lance dived, and the mer dived with him, so Lance showed how he used his legs to propel himself safely, giving the mer a thumbs up and swimming up to some coral, taking a piece that had fell off and swimming back to the surface to where the mer stared at him in disbelief, Lance holding the coral out to them as a peace offering. “See? I’m all safe! Nothing to worry about.” The mer shook their head, thrashing their tail around before swimming stubbornly around Lance, pointing to their own tail and at Lance’s legs again. Lance shook his head. “It doesn’t work for me, look.” Lance managed to slip the tail back on, barely managing to thrash around like a fish, sinking slightly. The mer hissed and screeched, quickly grabbing Lance around the waist and pulling him up so he wouldn’t sink. The mer looked to him and the tail, before pointing at his own tail with a frown. “You’re made to be able to swim with your tail,” Lance clarified, “I’m made to swim with my legs.” 

The mer cocked their head to the side, reaching out and taking the mer tail off Lance again, tugging at his leg. Lance lost his balance a little, but managed to avoid slipping under the water. The mer tested Lance’s knee joint, knocked on the bone of his shin- then tried to get his shin to bend like a fin. Lance screeched, grabbing the mer’s curious hands, and the mer had the decency to offer an apologetic smile. Lance reached out to the mer’s tail, not surprised that the tail was muscular and bendy. The mer allowed Lance to flex their tail around, before gently pulling away.

After a little staring, the mer offered a sheepish smile, swimming lightly and once more encouraging Lance to follow their lead. Lance did, swimming beside the mer, whose gaze fixated on Lance’s legs as if studying how it was ever possible for a creature to swim without a tail. The mer looked cautious, ready to grab Lance should his human legs fail him in the water, but Lance was a fairly experienced swimmer.

The swim sessions with the mer- his name was Keith, apparently- lasted for months, until Lance was down at the beach almost daily to swim with the mer; years, until they fell in love. The mer would excitedly screech, swimming faster and faster each time until Lance couldn’t keep up, at which point the mer just started to drag Lance along. The two had regularly stopped to rest at a secluded cove, which had since become decorated with the shells and corals they found on their adventures. The tide never seemed to touch the cove, which shouldn’t have been possible, but hey. Nobody had believed that mermaids even existed until recent years, so maybe the world was more magical than previously assumed.

**Author's Note:**

> I love MerKlance AUs so much and this idea got stuck in my head


End file.
